Archive for the ‘Nikon Nikkor 50 f/1.4 Reviews’ Category

“One of the best lens for portrait and low light photography”

I don’t even know where to start. This lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. This lens is perfect for low light and/or action/sport photography (as this lens is famous for being one of the fastest lens together with its brother 50mm f/1.8). This lens is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes (macro etc). This is definitely a very versatile lens.

However, I think you should really consider buying the f/1.8 first before thinking to buy this f/1.4 lens (mainly because it is more than twice the price of the f1/8 and most of the time the f/1.8 version is fast enough in my opinion). Some examples where the faster f/1.4 lens might make a difference: low light wedding/concert or indoor sports photography (where the light is often low from the camera perspective) such as hockey, track and field, skating, gymnastic, basketball etc.

As much as I want to encourage everyone to buy this lens right away, let me mention some of the limitation that you would see (which I think will be helpful to go over before deciding to buy this lens):

First, being a prime lens, you will need to move your feet a lot to compose your picture. If you are used to zoom lens, don’t underestimate this limitation. It takes me a while to get used to it, and sometime I still find people looking at me wondering why I am moving forward and backwards. the good news is that most of the time, they don’t think I’m weird, but they are actually wondering if I’m a professional photographer.

Secondly, the focal range of 50mm, which is considered the normal lens and great for portrait lens. but on a DSLR (which I assume most of you use nowadays), this lens become a 75mm equivalent which is in the border of a short tele lens. I actually like the 75mm equivalent though I often have to move backwards when taking picture of a group of people.

Sharpness increases as you stop down to f/2. I actually prefer to use the widest most of the time and the results are still nice. Personally (when shooting low light action/sport), I’d rather use f/1.4 aperture settings than stopped down (e.g to f/2.8) and compensate with higher ISO setting which often gives me grainy picture. But if your object is not moving (static) then it is better to stop down to f/2 or more.

If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR, here’s my take: VR does help a lot (and produce better/sharper picture than equivalent faster lens without VR) if the object is static. If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature doesn’t really help and fast lens (like this lens) will be a far better solution. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.

Here are the summary of pros and cons for this Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF lens:

Pros:
1. Very fast (f/1.4)
2. Very sharp pictures (especially when stopped down to f/2 or more. very sharp at f/2.8)
3. Great for sport/action photography
4. Great for indoor and low light situation
5. Great for portrait
6. Bokeh is almost as good as many expensive Nikon tele-lens
7. Fast autofocus
8. Perfect for wedding photography (or no-flash event). However, or try the 17-35mm f/2.8 or 28-70mm f/2.8 lens)
9. 75mm equivalent which can be considered a short tele lens (I actually like the fact that it’s 75mm equivalent vs 50mm in DSLR. if you need more zoom, you can get the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, or the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR)
10. Sharper than its 50mm f/1.8 sibling (at equivalent aperture)

Cons:
1. Being prime lens, you need to move your feet a lot to adjust/compose
2. Some distortion at widest aperture
3. Plasticy build (though it has metal moount and internal part seems to be from metal)
4. Autofocus is not the most silent but very reasonable
5. 75mm equivalent with 1.5x multiplier on DSLR (many people find this is an odd range for normal lens. I actually like it)

Bottom line: This lens is so versatile that I think everyone should own (either the 50mm f/1.4 or the 50mm f/1.8) in addition to all the lenses that they already have. Being a very fast lens, it enables me to take pictures in low light (sport/action photography) that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.

Again, I would recommend everyone to get this lens (or the 50mm f/1.8). In some ways I can say that this lens will make you a better photographer.

“Worth the extra money compared to the f/1.”

I was considering buying the f/1.8 for its lower price; however, I decided to go with the f/1.4D. Why? I was told it has a more solid, metal mount compared to the f/1.8 (I haven’t inspected the 1.8 to verify this) and it’s slightly faster. Is this worth the increase in price? When I realized I’d be using this lens for years, the answer was ‘yes’. Why quibble over a few hundred bucks for a piece of equipment you’ll be using for a long time with an even more expensive SLR. Has the extra 1/2 stop made any difference- YES. Shooting indoors or at night, I’ve had to open it up all the way to 1.4 many times, even at very slow shutter speeds (1/60, 1/30). As long as I accounted for the thin depth of field, I got excellent, sharp photos. I’m very happy with this purchase.

“One of the best 50mm f1.4 lenses available”

The current 50mm f1.4 D-series AF Nikkor lens is the latest in a venerable line of 50mm f1.4 Nikkor lenses produced by Nikon since the early 1960’s for both its manual and autofocus Nikon 35mm SLR systems. Performance-wise, it is probably the best autofocus 50mm lens available on the market now, with excellent contrast and resolution from at least f2 and below (I have found as a rule that Nikkor lenses don’t quite have the “snap” and contrast I have seen from Contax Carl Zeiss lenses, of which one of my favorites is the venerable 50mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss T* Planar lens which has been around since 1975 and was recognized as the best 50mm lens available by Popular Photography a few years ago.). If I was still using Nikon equipment, I wouldn’t hesitate acquiring this lens, which still ranks among Nikon’s finest. The excellent pictures I have seen from those using this lens are a clear visual testament to its optical excellence.

“Understand What You are Looking Through”

I’m a profesionally trained photographer. I’ve used old manual focus, split focusing cameras and lenses. Now, if I have to bring one lens out on a shoot with me, it’s the 50mm 1.4/f.
The focal length is just enough where the distortion at the edges of photos will be unnotoicable. The apperature (f stop) is low enough to blur out the background and gives you the ability to shoot in low light conditions without blur or a flash. If you are around four feet to your subject, the intended focus area will be super sharp and an inch away will start to lose focus. These traits are ideal for portraits and make this lens reliable in almost any situation.
Because it is a prime lens (does not zoom) you have to move around more and learn how to crop.

“Better than the f/1.”

Yes, the f/1.8 is a real bargain – but it’s a bit soft when shooting wide open. It’s still soft at f/2, but pretty decent by f/2.8. The Nikkon f/1.4, on the other hand, is decent at f/1.4 and quite sharp at f/2.0. I often need to shoot at f/2, so I’ve sold my f/1.8 and purchased the faster lens. For me, it’s worth the extra $$$.